John Warren's page

I just got my copy of "Robots Have No Tails" in the mail. I love Paizo and I love the Planet Stories line, but I very strongly dislike the new format.

I thought the cover illustration for "Robots" was by far one of your best yet, but the cover layout really bugs me. Why the omnipresent Planet Stories logo? Gah!

Because of the layout and the paper stock, I think "Robots" is too much like a magazine for its own good--it feels disposable. I'm not sure people will pay $12.99 for something that looks and feels like it should be read once and then thrown in the recycling bin. I assume the magazine look is intended to capture some kind of nostalgia for the pulps, but are any of your readers that old? (I'm 41, and I don't have any nostalgic feelings toward that era.)

Add me to the list of those who are not fans of the two columns of text on each interior page--it's hard on the eyes. Modern magazines that use a format like that put an illustration of some kind on virtually every page to break up the text and make it more appealing to the eye.

Finally (and I apologize, because I am full of complaints today), some of your choices for the line are confounding to me. I can't wait for A. Merritt, but why Piers Anthony? It seems like you're really running two different book series under the same name. Maybe I'm being too nit-picky, but it seems like some of your books (Piers Anthony, Gary Gygax, Worlds of Their Own, etc.) belong in a separate series from Planet Stories.

I suspect there are financial realities that make a lot of these choices necessary, so I understand if you feel you have to do some of these things to keep the line alive.

I really want you guys to be successful, but if "Robots" is the future of the line, it is hard for me to imagine continuing my subscription.

Thanks for listening.

Have to strongly agree with the 'please take maps out of the chronicles subscription' camp.

I got this product in the mail today and it is completely useless to me.

Particularly useless is the giant poster map of Zirnakaynin. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do with it. It has no numbered locations on it, and it's not made at a scale where you could use it with minis.

I honestly can't figure out what its purpose is.

I am a huge fan of Paizo, but this particular product frustrates me to no end.

Please, no more map folios.

Seven Footprints to Satan is the book I keep in my car in case I get stranded on a drawbridge or stuck waiting for someone somewhere. It's fun.

I expect to announce something Merritt-related soon.

Sunday I was looking through the "Inspirational Reading" list in the 1E DMG, and realized that I had no idea who this A. Merritt guy was. Gygax credits deCamp & Pratt, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H.P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt as being "the most immediate influences upon AD&D." (It's odd to me that Lovecraft made the cut, while Tolkien didn't.)

So, I checked the local library--no A. Merritt anywhere to be found. I checked Amazon.com for CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP (recommended by Gygax), but all they had were used paperbacks, most from more than 50 years ago.

Then I thought, "This sounds like just the kind of thing that would make a good Planet Stories book!" (Of course, having never read any Merritt, I don't know that for sure.) So, I came here... and... good news!

Planet Stories must continue! I had picked up a few volumes here and there in the past (and was pleasantly surprised by Moorcock's Mars books, especially the second book), but now I am a subscriber.

This may help to clarify:

People from a comic book background are accustomed to the term "trade paperback" being used to refer to a collection of previously published comics, like Flaming Man #21-28.

However, the term is also used in "regular" book publishing for books that are of larger dimensions than a normal mass market paperback.

So, to be 100% clear... this is a prose novel, not a comic book or graphic novel.

Hope that helps!

Would you buy a novel in which every single character looked like that?

So, Erik, give us an idea of how many books and magazines you have in your "to read" pile right now. And are they all in your apartment, or do you have some storage space elsewhere?

And (sorry this is off-topic) are you doing any writing? I haven't seen your name (except as Publisher, obviously) on any Pathfinder stuff or GameMastery stuff recently.

"Statistically, no war will ever last more than 20 combat rounds, and that's if *none of the combatants manage to hit each other!* They'll critically fumble themselves to death!"

-----

As a math major, I feel obligated to point out that this is not true.

Even though the chances of rolling a 1 are 1 in 20, the chances of having rolled a 1 after 20 rolls is NOT 100%.

If I recall my probability correctly, it is 1 - (0.95)^20, which works out to be about 64%.

What if you did a fourth AP that was shorter than the others? Instead of doing six issues, just do three? That would buy you some time.

Isn't there anyone at Wizards who can give you a firm date on when (or even if) they'll be giving you the info you need on 4E?

I think the unfortunate reality is that you have to go to 4E as soon as it is feasible.

I told my group that they had to have a name and a short introduction telling what set their party apart from other groups. (Being a former DJ, I enjoyed hamming up the introduction each group at the beginning of each match.)

So, my group decided to call themselves "The Elements" (the dwarven cleric represented earth, the wizard represented fire, etc.). They had trouble deciding what their unique characteristic was, so they asked to be introduced this way:

"And in this corner, The Elements... who are good at... winning."

We got a lot of mileage out of that.

There should be an email going out to subscribers next week regarding this.

Did the email go out to subscribers? I don't think I received it.

After years of reading a magazine with the same size font, one would think that the complaints about font size would have occurred prior to their subscription running out.

I agree with everyone who says that this is a gorgeous product. And the $19.99 pricetag (less if you subscribe) is very reasonable considering all the 32-page modules out there for $10-$13.

I also have to agree about the tiny print being a problem, though. I'm glad that the staff is cramming as much info as possible into the available space, but the tiny type is off-putting. (At least I also get a free PDF of the issue, so I can view the text at larger size on my PC if I have to.)

I picked up Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale yesterday, and the font in that module is much easier to read. I would love to see Pathfinder use the same layout as the GameMastery modules.